


stopwatch

by brandywine421



Series: Unfinished AUs of Flail (aka fail) [20]
Category: Daredevil (TV), Jessica Jones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 17:59:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17228603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brandywine421/pseuds/brandywine421
Summary: "I can't believe you met Elektra's stepbrother - that guy's a legend," Trish said.  "Tell me everything.""A legend? Maybe you should tell me stuff first," she replied, still buzzing with last night's sweet goodnight kiss instead of Trish's wine hangover."Well, Elektra's mysterious as hell on her own - orphaned as a child, heiress to billions if last year's profile was correct - but her self-proclaimed stepbrother is an enigma. He has all kinds of degrees but never comes out unless she's with him," Trish said."He's blind," Jessica added.Trish shrugged and slurped her coffee much more daintily than she'd eaten her meal. "Everyone knows that. Is he creepy-hot or just creepy-weird?""He wasn't creepy, he was - funny. Charming. Kind of an asshole, but - "Trish boggled at her. "Youlikehim. Oh my God, you like him - I'm so proud of you - he sounds like just your type!"She flipped her the middle finger. "Whatever, he was pretty up front about his relationship history being 'complicated'. His 'stepsister' got pretty close to humping his leg when she saw him with me but he walked me to the elevator and slipped his card in my bra like a pro," Jessica confessed.





	stopwatch

**Author's Note:**

> Huh. I thought I posted this already. It's almost 2019 so I'm trying to clean out my fic-folder to start the new year. 
> 
> Here are some 'pieces' of a fic I never finished but I still have ♥ for it and figure I'll throw it up so it doesn't linger forever in the wrong year's folder.

 

 

 

  
Jessica slumped onto an open seat at the edge of the main room that seemed free of handsy social climbers that saw her come in with Trish. She was here to keep Trish from going home with a loser - not make friends with schmoozers. Not like she had anything to schmooze.

She let out a relieved huff of air and realized the seat wasn't actually isolated completely. There was a very attractive man sprawled across the opposite end of the loveseat. At least he wasn't man-spreading in his designer suit but he was being egregious with his sunglasses at a dinner party. He wasn't drinking the free champagne and wine, though, he had a glass of dark liquor in a 'man's glass'. She should be disgusted at his pretentiousness but he tilted his head toward her and turned his lips up in a silent greeting, but not an invitation for conversation.

"Where are they hiding the good stuff around here?" she asked, nodding toward his glass.

He didn't respond immediately, his shadowed jaw working for a moment. "This? It's not for the guests, as if they'd dare admit to anything in this suite was purchased in a paper sack."

Huh. Maybe she made a good pick with this corner. Expensive suite and shades aside, he's not wearing a wedding ring and didn't bother shaving before turning up. Things are looking up until she spots the white cane leaned against his thigh. Sunglasses inside, okay.

 

* * *

 

"Matthew, you promised at least one full hour of mingling and I have yet to see you speak to any of the investors," a silky voice interrupted.

He didn't pull his hand away instantly, but he visibly turned to acknowledge the speaker. Jessica didn't see Trish so she wasn't sure if she'd broken some kind of rule considering the deadly glare of the woman intruding on their corner.

"Elektra, I made no promises. I have no urge to be your walking press release to show how open you are to hiring disabled employees," Matt replied. "You're doing fine on your own. Franklin's got three new verbal contracts with that pharmaceutical firm and Marci's throwing her best 'bimbo' game at the Optics CEO out of Singapore. You, however, were very rude to the new talk show host that you personally invited."

Jessica's initial dislike of the woman increased.

"Are you drinking that swill out here?" Elektra frowned, reaching for his glass but he moved it out of her reach with a familiar ease.

"Jessica, allow me to introduce my very rude friend, Elektra Natchios," Matt said, forcing the snobbish woman to acknowledge her.

"Hi," she said with an unimpressed look.

Elektra visibly collected herself, rising into poised perfection as she offered her hand to shake. "Apologies all around. I hope Matthew's unrefined tastes have not ruined your impression. My stepbrother would not be invited if he were only a 'friend', but he prefers that to 'partner'."

"Not in your company or your bed, Ellie, don't pick a fight with me tonight," Matt said, his voice cold and a stark change from how Jessica had heard him speak.

"Of course," Elektra replied, cool. "I will reappraise the blonde. I mistook her for a child star that Marci invited with reputable drug connections."

"That guest was uninvited," Matt frowned.

Elektra cupped his chin, kissing his lips chastely. "Always such a choir boy, Matthew."

 

* * *

 

"That seems...complicated," Jessica said when the strange woman sauntered back into the crowd of yuppies.

"You have no idea. I don't usually meet people I'm interested in talking to at Ellie's parties," he admitted.

Jessica snorted. "Because you're on eavesdropping detail?"

He smiled and she remembered that they had been having a nice time before the interruption. "Busted. That's one of the reasons she forces me to attend these things."

"I hope you're getting paid more than I am, I just get free brunch out of the deal," Jessica said.

 

* * *

 

"I can't believe you met Elektra's stepbrother - that guy's a legend," Trish said, leaning heavily over her decimated plate of ex-waffles. "Tell me everything."

"A legend? Maybe you should tell me stuff first," she replied, still buzzing with last night's sweet goodnight kiss instead of Trish's wine hangover.

"Well, Elektra's mysterious as hell on her own - orphaned as a child, heiress to billions if last year's profile was correct - but her self-proclaimed stepbrother is an enigma. He has all kinds of degrees but never comes out unless she's with him," Trish said.

"He's blind," Jessica added.

Trish shrugged and slurped her coffee much more daintily than she'd eaten her meal. "Everyone knows that. They were in the same orphanage for wealthy kids - but none of that explains how you met him - is he creepy-hot or just creepy-weird?"

"He wasn't creepy, he was - funny. Charming. Kind of an asshole, but - "

Trish boggled at her. "You _like_ him. Oh my God, you like him - I'm so proud of you - he sounds like just your type!"

She flipped her the middle finger. "Whatever, he was pretty up front about his relationship history being 'complicated'. His 'stepsister' got pretty close to humping his leg when she saw him with me but he walked me to the elevator and slipped his card in my bra like a pro," Jessica confessed. She wasn't normally a fan of stealth touching but she was impressed he'd slipped it past her reflexes.

"That's hot - was he hot?" Trish grinned.

"If I hadn't been playing wing-woman for you, I couldn't gotten more than a kiss goodnight," Jessica preened.

"Hey, if it hadn't been for me, you wouldn't have met him at all. When are you going to call him?"

 

* * *

 

The door to the penthouse banged open loudly but closed with a muted click. Marci and Foggy both tensed, remembering how Elektra had reacted to the last person that tried to interrupt their crisis meeting. Her eyes flicked to the entry and she slowly smiled. "Our problems with the Staten Island investors may have been resolved."

"Wait, what?" Foggy asked, fumbling for his phone to check the messages.

"Matthew is a skilled negotiator and he owed me a favor," Elektra replied, clicking through several screens to move forward in the presentation. He glanced at Marci to share his suspicion but she kicked his ankle to silence him.

It was over half an hour before Matt appeared, freshly showered in sweats showing off his impressive biceps. The black eye and precise stitches across his collarbone were new and Foggy's stomach sank at the implication.

"Are you all right?" Marci asked as he shrugged off Elektra's passing touch on his way through to the kitchen.

"Of course," he deflected with an impressive blind 'glare' toward Elektra. "My trainer got a little handsy today at the gym."

"So it has nothing to do with the 'negotiating' that Ellie told us about," Marci clarified pointedly.

"I am _not_ and never will be an employee of your company," Matt replied, stopping in the doorway.

 

* * *

 

"I'd like to remind you of one of our earliest conversations when I told you that there are some things I'll never be able to talk about," Matt said, turning her to a conveniently placed bench and shrugging out of his jacket and holding it out to her.

"Why are you suddenly weird?" Jessica asked, taking the coat and cane.  It was date three, they should be past weird.

"Because you're probably going to be angry at me when I'm finished," he said, rolling up his sleeves with a small sigh before he darted into the alley.

She waited a few moments in silence before tossing the jacket over the backrest and following the muted grunts from the shadows. A heavyset thug dressed like a biker landed in a heap at her feet.

Out of all the scenarios that flashed through her mind - watching her blind crush spin-kick a guy twice his size was not one of them.

"So spontaneous karate is off the table for questions?" she asked when the last thug crumpled to the pavement.

"At all costs," Matt replied, turning away from her and leaning over to offer his hand. "Are you all right, ma'am?"

"Thank you," another voice whimpered.

"We'll walk you to the payphone so you can call 911," Matt said, helping a thin woman in torn clothes to her feet.

"I can use my phone now that I've got it back. I won't tell anyone I saw you, Mister, you should get out of here," the woman said, kicking at one of the leather assholes as she snatched her bag.

Matt nodded to her and easily took Jessica's elbow and steered her back to the bench as if his sunglasses weren't shattered and his knuckles weren't bleeding. "Sorry about that."

"You don't seem too sorry, should we wait for the cops?" Jessica asked, watching numbly as he incidentally smeared blood over his jacket sleeves smoothing them out before he slipped his arms inside.

"I'd prefer we didn't. Can we have our argument while we walk?" Matt asked.

 

* * *

 

His hands catch her fingers before she can get them underneath his t-shirt. "Wait," he breathed into her mouth. "Slow down."

"Don't tell me you're shy," she teased.

He laughed softly. "Past encounters have taught me that this is the point of no return. Either you'll get so repelled that you'll excuse yourself for the evening without admitting it to my face, or you'll have so many questions that you'll forget how much I want you."

"Sounds like you've been picking shitty partners, Murdock," she said, firmly deciding to hold her tongue at whatever tattoo or birthmark he was hiding and peeled the shirt up and over his head. His hair fluttered adorably and he blinked at her in surprise.

She didn't gasp at the mosaic of scars layered across his chest and side and - his back - Christ - but she wished she'd paid more attention to his warning. She splayed her fingers across his rippled abdomen. "Still here, but - "

"I don't know what it looks like, you know? Elektra never told me it was noticeable but after - I keep my shirt on as a rule unless - "

She looped her hands around his neck and laced her fingers over his spine to pull him close. "Unless?"

"Unless it's someone I trust not to care."

She kissed him and patted his cheek as she pulled back. "Then you're doing it wrong. Is this another one of those things you're not going to talk about?"

"It's all, kind of, related so _yeah_ ," he admitted.

 

* * *

 

"Where are we going?" Jessica asked when the steady swing of Matt's cane started to stir up all her stifled questions. It might be a nice day for a walk but unless they started having conversations including more than banter and foreplay - this wasn't going to work out the way either of them intended.

He didn't answer immediately but slowed his steps. "You have been _very_ patient with me. Our timing's off, I - there are still a lot of things I can't talk about. But I don't - I want to see where you and I are headed. I want you to meet my friend. I think you'll understand more if you meet him - but - "

There was always a 'but'.

"You can't tell Elektra," he said finally.

That got her attention. "You tell her everything."

"You don't understand," he countered.

"Because you won't explain it," she snapped.

Matt sighed.

"If it was up to me, I'd _never_ talk to her," Jessica said. "But you live with her, you fight for her - you - don't you _dare_ say it's complicated."

"I owe her my life, my soul and my freedom," Matt whispered. "You don't understand."

"Because you won't explain it," she repeated.

He slowed to a stop and turned to face her. "Then that's it. I'll call you a cab if you can tell me what corner we're closest to."

"I thought we were meeting someone," Jessica replied but she could tell by his posture that she'd gone too far.

He shook his head. "Off the table."

She tried to process if she should apologize and ride it out or take the exit. He wanted to share something with her that he hadn't shared with Elektra - that should mean something - but if he wouldn't tell her anything more, was it enough?

"I'm - "

"Doesn't matter," Matt cut her off. "Elektra's always going to be a part of my life because she's the only reason I fucking have one. If you can't deal with that now, then all we can say is goodbye."

"So I don't get a say at all?" Jessica fired back before she could stop herself. But fuck him - she was worth fighting for more than Elektra Fucking Natchios.

A sharp whistle caught both their attention and a lanky teenager with out of control curls hopped down the stairs of one of the brownstones. "You're not allowed to mention her name where I can hear you. Everything okay, Matt?"

Blue eyes and blond curls - not to ignore the blinding smile when he nearly tackled hugged Matt on the sidewalk - there was no way he was Matt or Elektra's kid unless there was some weird skipped generation DNA going on.

 

* * *

 

"I don't know how she is in her public life, or what Matt really thinks - but she scares the shit out of me. Never tell Matt I said that, but _please_ \- he is the only person on Earth that she listens to and we're all better off if he keeps her happy," Danny whispered urgently. "She's so dangerous, even when she's _not_ being controlled - she's _dangerous_ and - "

" **Danny** ," Matt interrupted sharply. "Out of turn. Has anything changed recently? Is there a reason you're - "

The kid's nostrils flared. "No, nothing's happened because you're protecting me but you still haven't gotten out - you said she would be gone, that you would take care of it but it's been a year and a half and you're still letting her chase away your girlfriends and living in her house."

"He's going to say it's complicated, but I think he's telling the truth," Jessica said, noting the wrecked expression on Matt's face.

"You said I could come stay with you, but I'm almost fifteen and I don't want to go to boarding school or be stuck with correspondence courses again - and you always say you're fine but you never look fine - " Danny bit off the rest of his words when he finally glanced up. "Sorry."

"Okay," Matt replied, shuttering his emotions like a wave crossed over his face. "Jessica, we have a cab waiting. Danny, I'll call you tomorrow."

"Don't leave, I'm sorry - I - "

Matt hugged the kid and murmured something in his ear that made Danny hug tighter before they both stepped back.

"It was great to meet you, Jessica. Maybe I'll see you again in a few months," Danny said, offering his hand to shake.

"Do you know what he said to me?" she asked when they were in the cab.

"Yes. This was a mistake," Matt replied.

"Are you in over your head? Because that kid seems to think - "

"That 'kid' thinks too much. He's supposed to be focusing on being a kid, not _this_ \- I didn't - it doesn't matter."

"Stay at mine tonight," she offered impulsively.

He shook his head. "Can't. Today was a mistake. I'll call you."

"No you won't," she realized. "Not until you have things under control and you'll never have that because your ex is a sociopath."

Matt motioned to the driver. "You can let me out here."

She grabbed his hand. "Hey. I'm here, don't cut me out."

"I have to, or she'll do it for me. If you're still interested after, maybe, but - I have to go."

 

* * *

 

"Hey. Do you have any insight to why our CEO and her stepbrother are suddenly MIA?" Marci crossed her legs and frowned at the cheap stool she was forced to sit on. Franklin hovered behind her, tugging on his tie.

"Matt's not talking to me. Apparently I ask too many questions," Jessica said but she kept one eye on the TV screen behind the bar. "Have you been following that?"

"Of course, the whole city's following that," Franklin replied, taking the seat on her free side. "Lost heir of Rand Industries discovered and hidden for all these years - it's a scoop. We're really hoping our boss isn't involved in that."

"Why would she be?" Jessica asked.

"We've got a lot of contracts with Rand and Ellie owns some of their stock," Marci replied.

Franklin looked at her incredulously. "She owns *a lot* of their stock, Marci."

" _Huh_ ," Jessica remarked.

"So you don't know where they are?" Franklin asked her.

"No. He hasn't answered my phone calls in over a week. What are you two doing here?" Jessica countered.

"Looking for them," Franklin replied tiredly. "A courier dropped off paperwork this morning buying us out of our own company. Elektra signed and Matt was down as witness."

She whistled. ""You should probably sign that shit."

"I told you - " Foggy snapped at Marci. "Matt warned us weeks ago and you wouldn't listen. Something's really wrong."

"Wait, what do you mean he warned you?" Jessica demanded.

"You haven't told us anything yet," Marci replied.

"I don't know anything about your business bullshit. I asked too many questions and he shut me out. But I know that Elektra is bad news," Jessica said, motioning for another beer and glancing back at the TV. The lost millionaire stepped on camera and Jessica recognized the blond curls before she saw his face. " _Fuck_."

"Matt told us that we should check the numbers and without saying it outright - that Ellie was robbing us blind," Marci said after a beat. "We couldn't find anything definitive but there were a lot of password-protected files. When I asked her why we didn't have access she blew me off and when I asked Murdock to get me her password he gave me that old 'I am not and never will be an employee of your company' line."

"He needed to keep his hands clean for when he brought it all down," Jessica whispered.

 

* * *

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I ♥ Elektra, I just needed a villain in this one.


End file.
